The Walking Dead: Chicago
by GranolaPeacock23
Summary: When the outbreak spreads to the third most populous city in the United States, it goes down fast. This story follows a small, clueless family as they try to survive this and cling onto any hope they can. (Set in the early days of the apocalypse. Characters from the show will not be in this, all original characters. Please R&R!)


**Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or any of the characters, except for the original ones I use here.**

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I couldn't believe it. I really, really couldn't believe that while some mysterious disease outbreak was ravaging the nation, my district had insisted that school will continue until people start getting sick in our town. Then, when hospital admittance rates spiked around downtown Chicago, District 94 had insisted again that uptown schools won't close, because the authorities were working to contain it.

And now, as Amber Thompson came stumbling down the hall sweating bullets, I started to get the feeling that it _might_ be too late.

Like everyone else, Gabby and I stood by our adjoined lockers, stone still and silent. People were sharing terrified looks, but for the most part waiting for Amber to do something besides lean up against the wall. Then suddenly, she did. The books she held went plummeting to the floor at the same time she did, and everyone else in the hall suddenly lost it. Students were screaming like lunatics, running and shoving past each other.

"What do we do?!" Gabby asked, staring at me with eyes wide in fear. Of course, everyone instantly thought she had become "a sick one". That's what my parents kept referring to them as. "A sick one was spotted downtown today," my mom had said every day for a week. She had tried to convince Dad to head downstate to her sister's, but he'd always say, "It's fine, Mari." It was repetitive, and even my nine year old sister Brooke had started to see that they were scared too.

I slammed my locker and replied, "We can't just leave her there..." It was difficult to see Amber over the sea of frantic kids, but she was still just laying in the floor in a slightly different position; somebody had probably already tripped over her. Realizing my Algebra textbook was still in my hand, I tossed it to the ground. "Come on, didn't she have type one diabetes? She could've just forgotten her insulin." My voice was level, but inside I was just as weary as the rest of them. Amber and I had went to the same middle school when she was diagnosed and I'd never seen her forget. But maybe, with everything going on, she did.

Gabby shook her head, her woozy hair flopping about as she did so. "No way, Skylar. We-"

She was cut off as a booming voice echoed off the enclosed walls. "Hey!" Everything around me seemed to come to a halt. My head snapped up, searching for the source. I spotted a couple of teachers at the far end of the hall, behind Amber. They looked furious, and I couldn't blame them. Probably a quarter of the 10th grade had just fled the school. Mr. Nelson must've been the one who yelled. The man who insisted he was thirty four but looked fifty clutched a yardstick in his stubby, fat hands and slammed it against the lockers a couple more times to reprimand the students who hadn't calmed down yet. Right after the third hit, Principal McNeil rounded the hallway and joined him and Mrs. Rosario.

McNeil wasted no time. He started overusing his hands while talking, like he always did. "The school nurse is already on the way here. Mr. Nelson, I want you to get every kid on this floor down to the cafeteria and keep them there. Parents are already being contacted by the automated system," He paused, looking at the girl on the floor. I shared a look with Gabby, and saw my own thoughts reflected in her face. _It's begun._

Before the Principal could continue, our friend Ryan piped up from across the hall. I was glad to see him, but surprised that he was speaking up. Usually, he left that to me. "What's going on?" He demanded, backed up by a handful of his classmates muttering. "Has it spread here?"

Mrs. Rosario stepped in front of McNeil and cut her eye at her superior. She was always more feisty. "There's no point in lying to them, John. To hell with the protocol." Giving no room for anyone to interrupt, she continued tersely. "A freshman student is believed to be infected. The school has been placed on lockdown and none of you are leaving until you've been tested for the virus."

Gasps rippled throughout the gathered students, along with a few kids bursting into tears. Gabby was one of them, and she hugged her books. "It's gonna be fine." I said quietly, for both her benefit and my own.

"Let's go." Mr. Nelson clapped his hands together once. "Stay behind me, and don't ask questions." As soon as he turned around to lead us, movement from Amber stopped me in my tracks. I put my arm out, blocking Gabby. A couple of my classmates had noticed too, and also stopped.

A kid named Zeke pointed and exclaimed, "She's waking up!"

I held my breath as she twitched, then her legs started to move so she could get her footing. For whatever reason, the nurse still hadn't got here so the Principal had crouched down beside her. "Are you alright?" He asked quietly. The girl was sitting now, but her head hung so her chin was against her chest.

"Amber?" McNeil said, placing a hand on her arm. As soon as he did, it seemed to awaken her. Her head snapped up, and at that moment, the screaming commenced.

Bloodshot eyes stared at the Principal with nothing but furious hunger. Amber's arms shot out and latched onto McNeil, pulling him towards her despite his fervent efforts to get out of her hold, and sunk her teeth into his shoulder.

The low scream of agony mixed with the others. I was stood frozen, staring as the girl who usually played soccer at lunch ravished into a man. His jacket was torn to expose skin ripped away. Blood poured out and pooled on the floor around him, but she kept going, ripping out muscle and tendons with no effort. It felt like I was in a tunnel, and all that was at the end was that sight.

"Skylar!" A yell right by my ear distracted me, but my head just barely tilted towards her. My eyes were still set on the scene before me as Amber's teeth ripped away at what was once a handsome face. Gabby shook me by the shoulders, barely able to talk through her terrified sobbing. "P-please, we have to go!"

I think the yell got the thing's attention, or maybe it was just because we were still there. Either way, Amber now turned her attention towards me. Her eyes that used to be filled with snarky glee stared right into my soul. Abandoning McNeil who bled out long ago, she stood.

The hall was empty now. If nothing else did, the staggering creature snapped me out of the stupor. My mouth hung open, and I moved just as slow as she did with my back against the lockers. Raspy growls escaped the unnaturally dark lips. Her arms outstretched now, and I could feel Gabby quivering beside me. Right now, I was cursing my parents for limiting how much I watched the news. The knowledge I had on "sick ones" was very limited. They didn't die from bullets or strangulation, I knew that. But how fast could they move?

Gabby was now whimpering in terror. Time was running out, and Amber was mere feet away, so I had to do something. Bending down, I snatched my Algebra text book from the floor and threw it at her with a grunt.

It hit her right in the head and she hit the floor with an outraged growl. She was already getting up again, so I grabbed Gabby by the arm and bolted for the stairs away from Amber.

We went down the stairs two at a time, and were seriously lucky one or both of us didn't go tumbling down head first. The sound of our sneakers hitting against the concrete steps for some reason made it even eerier. Everything seemed to be quiet now, and in a Highschool, that's probably not a good thing.

As we got to the landing and were now on the second floor, the scene was even worse. Gabby gasped a little too loudly, "That's Nick!" But she was right. A freshman boy we saw frequently was straight ahead, tearing into some kid, and there were handful of others like him. Luckily we didn't have to go that way, and only the one at the far end had noticed us. The rest were too preoccupied with their eating.

I was about to do what any sane person would and hang a right towards the next flight of stairs, but I saw Ruben Smith's locker a few feet before a reanimated corpse.

"He started bringing a knife to school when the outbreak started." I whispered, pointing to his locker. It was common knowledge among the students and frankly, no one was surprised. At a pool party once everyone saw he had a Swastika tattoo, so we were all just glad it wasn't a gun.

Gabby scoffed, practically running in place she was so antsy. "So? What are you gonna do with it?" With a flicker of anger, I realized she was right. My dad and I would go shoot targets for fun, but I couldn't imagine having to kill anybody, especially familiar faces. Besides, in all the official statements and news stories they told us not to approach them or kill unnecessarily. After one last glance at the locker, I ran towards the stairs. A sick one was starting to get close anyway.

"Why wasn't there some kind of alarm or something?" Gabby asked as we again went down two stairs at a time, still sniffling but not as hysterically. "I mean, it's not even lunch time. They had to have known someone was sick." I suddenly snatched my hand from where it had been on the railing and wiped it on my jeans. Nobody even knew how this was spreading yet. I didn't have an answer for her, but I was wondering too. _Does this school want us to die?_

At the stairwell, I pressed my back against the wall as an infected teacher stumbled right past us and into an open-doored classroom, not even sparing us a glance. I guess we were quiet enough to not have attracted it's attention. It's intestines were falling out through a gaping hole in the stomach, presumably from another infected.

Gabby suddenly jumped forward and slammed the door shut after it was a few feet inside with a look of pride twinkling in her watery eyes. Instantly, the infected turned around and started slamming against it, it's teeth scraping against the glass window. What once was a small crack was becoming like a cobweb, spiraling farther outwards. It was seconds until the glass shattered and it's pale head popped through, staring at us.

Backing away uneasily, I snapped at Gabby,"What did you do that for?" She had drawn the attention of a whole bunch of them straight ahead. There was no time to wait through her spluttering to hear her answer, so I ran right. Only a couple more hallways, the lobby, then outside. I didn't know what was outside or what would happen then, but I just needed to get home.

The next couple halls were completely empty of infected. However, there were numerous bodies of school employees or students who hadn't turned yet. This area must've been the last affected.

"The lobby." Gabby stated in relief once it started to come into view at the end of a seemingly never-ending corridor. By now my feet were practically dragging, my breath coming in wheezes. My figure is similar to Gumby's, so its not like my weight was keeping me down. I think it was the fact I'd basically ran down three floors nonstop. And maybe the stress of _dying._ I bent over with my hands on my knees, struggling to catch my breath.

From here I could see through the glass doors. I squinted against the bright sunlight. It wasn't the usual packed parking lot. A line of soldiers wearing respiration masks beside two huge military Humvees, holding some type of automatic weapons. There were bodies that looked relatively healthy littering the ground.

Gabby didn't stop running, just briefly turned to look at me as she pushed on first set of doors. "Come on!" She yelled excitedly. "The military will help us!" I was standing several feet from the doors, but even I could see the soldiers didn't look very friendly. They were already stiffening at the sight of her, tightening the grips on their weapons.

"Hey Gabby, I don't think we should-" I didn't get to finish my sentence. She either didn't hear my or ignored me; either way she didn't even spare a glance at me. She was so excited, convinced the military was going to save her and now everything was fine.

Suddenly, gunfire was deafening. As soon as she pushed open the doors bullet after bullet pierced her, coming from about ten different soldier's guns.

"No!" I screamed, dropping to my knees at the same time she hit the ground. Pushing myself towards a locker on the far side of the hall I wrapped my arms around my head, like that would somehow help if a bullet came through. They ricocheted off the floor, but it was now that I saw some of the lockers on the other side of the hall had bullet holes. I could see scarlet painted all over the doors that hadn't been broke.

I heard one of the soldiers call, "We've got a live one inside!" as he charged the building, pointing his gun towards me. With one last distraught glance at my friend's mangled body, I took off back down the hall we had just come from.

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 **A/N: I hope this isn't awful. I write so much better in third person but first person apocalyptic stories always seem to work better for some reason. This is my first time writing first person, so please don't ream me if you review. Please review, it'll be really really appreciated! :)**


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